Writer: David Whitaker
Original Broadcast Date: 23 December 1967 - 27 January 1968
2013 was a massive year for Doctor Who, seeing the 50th anniversary of the show, but also the biggest haul of missing episodes ever: all episodes of The Enemy of the World and five out of six of The Web of Fear made its way to online and to DVD release, to be watched for the first time in almost 50 years. Since, Enemy has shot up in fans' rankings, now an under-loved classic after years of being percieved as pretty mediocre story, but was it really all it was hyped to be, or just the opinion through rose-tinted glasses after the recovery of this action-packed, Bond-like six parter?
Short answer: not quite. I often found myself questioning if I was genuinely watching Doctor Who or just some James Bond imitation on a cheap BBC budget, with, something that mostly goes without saying for most 60s Who but needs stressing in this case, terrible additional cast. In fact I found only four out of ten or so side characters to be played decently, or at least to acceptable levels for its time. The others were utterly crap, especially Milton Johns, who played the greasy, unpleasant deputy of Salamander with absolutely no hint of talent and a god awful haircut. Also watch out for Adam Verney playing Colin with the acting ability of a lamp.
For what it lacks in the ability of some additional cast, it makes up for the brilliance of the others: Mary Peach plays a brilliant woman of action as Astrid (who would make a great companion by the way), Carmen Munroe as the brilliantly developed Fariah (another great candidate for companion) and of course Patrick Troughton, who not only plays the Doctor in this story, but the evil, cunning and manipulative Salamander.
On the subject of the villain, I'd like to mention what a brilliant actor Troughton is in portraying not just two seperate characters, but with such conviction and sheer talent that they don't just seem like different characters, it seems like two entirely different actors are playing the roles. It's crazy how well he plays it! I actually had to remind myself they were the same man.
Unfortunately the way early Doctor Who episodes were filmed made this work only to an extent. Usually an episode would be film practically live with only two or three breaks in, having to wrap up filming in about 75 minutes. This meant Troughton could not be in consecutive scenes with a different costume so easily and thus rather than back and forth scenes between the villain and the time lord, there are bursts of story progression for each character for a period of time, before switching to the other one, making the various plots all feel rather disjointed and not integrated, not simultaneously building towards a crescendo like most episodes do.
This was only made worse by Frazer Hines and Deborah Watling both taking a week off for filming of episode four, and thus not appearing for a lengthy one and half episodes, meaning focus had to be shifted to the other plot strands, which felt as if they were being run into the ground just before they finally returned to the screen to my great relief. This and the fact Salamander, being Troughton, took away screen time from the Doctor, also contributed to the story not quite feeling very Doctor Who-ish.
Ending on a high note after the noticeable dip in quality in the middle, The Enemy of the World is a mixed bag: with both breathtaking and crap performances, great scenes and clunky ones, but stands out in a series of base-under-sieges with a Bond-like feel and the lack of alien presence at all.
6/10
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